The men and women that serve as harbormasters wear many hats, from manning and maintaining mooring fields, ensuring safe navigation and providing security to patrols in all types of weather, arranging for tows and coordinating with law enforcement.
In short: they are dynamic, crucial servants of the public in the communities that they serve.
To shine a light on these often underappreciated folks, US Harbors — the free marine tide, weather and local harbor source — has established National Harbormaster Appreciation Day.
This year’s celebration, which will be held Oct. 8, is the second annual. Last year, over 80,000 people participated in the inaugural event by posting photos, stories, videos of their harbormasters, the company said in a statement.
The Harbormaster Appreciation Day website will be updated regularly with profiles on harbormasters all around the United States.
Participants interested in celebrating their local harbormaster can submit videos, stories, photos and more here.
While this year’s event will be different — following social distancing guidelines — US Harbors plans to ramp up weekly giveaways for participants leading up to the celebration on their website.
Prizes include waterproof bags, PFDs, hats, gift certificates and more.
Even better, the winners will be the recipient of two prizes — one for themselves and one to gift to their local harbormaster.
US Harbors will launch the celebration on its Facebook Live feed on the day of the event, allowing for all to see the appreciation for both your local harbormasters and those throughout the country.
